PEEC offers interactive nature experience Sunday

Friday

Mar 21, 2014 at 2:00 AM

If exploring a bat cave and piecing together a bear skeleton sound like a happy way to spend an afternoon, then the place to be this Sunday is the EcoZone Discovery Room at Pocono Environmental Education Center, in Dingmans Ferry, Pa.

Jessica Cohen

If exploring a bat cave and piecing together a bear skeleton sound like a happy way to spend an afternoon, then the place to be this Sunday is the EcoZone Discovery Room at Pocono Environmental Education Center, in Dingmans Ferry, Pa.

The bat cave, constructed to closely resemble a real one, has stalagtites hanging from above and stalagmites jutting upward from below. Both kinds of protrusions form over thousands or millions of years from mineral deposits left by water, and may join to form a column, says Ace.

The EcoZone eagle's nest is the size preferred by eagles, five feet across, made of branches like an eagle would use, but reinforced to accommodate more visitors than an eagle would tolerate.

"Visitors can step in and see it from the eagles' point of view," Ace said.

A swimming pool that once occupied the EcoZone domain has been "repurposed" to accommodate a beaver den at one end. The den is made of actual beaver "chews" — that is, sticks with beaver chew marks — that the PEEC staff collected. Beaver models inhabit the den.

On the other end of what was once the pool is a fossil pit, where real fossils can be found.

Other displays include a black rat snake, turtles and a worm bin, where worms decompose compost. The parts of a bear skeleton are made of real bear bones, magnetized, so visitors can put them together.

An aquaponic system that is self-sustaining is in development, in which plants provide food for fish, whose waste then feeds the plants. Local fish, such as catfish, may be the lucky residents.

The exhibit includes "progressive levels of information," Ace said, to appeal to visitors of varying ages.

EcoZone will be open this Sunday from 1-4 p.m. It opens one Sunday a month, as designated monthly by PEEC staff.